Facebook Messenger Bot Guide | How to Master Bots on Social

Imagine if someone could answer questions, nurture leads and address customer service concerns all while your entire operation sleeps.

Would it save you cash?

Improve your reputation?

Increase customer loyalty?

It may sound like some sort of far-fetched, futuristic dream, but thanks to the Facebook Messenger Bot (as well as other types of chatbots), these capabilities are already here — and largely free.

“Facebook Messenger is definitely becoming a more widely used advertising platform and Facebook is pushing this super hard right now and is continuing to add messenger placements (Messenger Home, Messenger Sponsored Messages). Currently, they are testing a direct messaging app for Instagram which could potentially be a new ad placement in the future.”

How the Facebook Messenger Bot Works

The Facebook Messenger Bot is a chatbot — an automated messaging tool that can literally have conversations with people (as well as answer questions, provide recommendations, execute tasks, process sales and more) all on your brand’s behalf.

But they’re not just great on the business side. They’re also helpful for the customer, providing quick responses and easy access to information, even when business hours are over or the customer service center is closed.

Below is one example of how brands (like Pepsi) are leveraging Facebook Messenger to the next level.

In 2017, at the Fashion Forward event in Dubai, Pepsi launched a Facebook Messenger Chatbot where users could order their Pepsi beverage and the bot notified customers when their drink was ready.

Here’s how Facebook Messenger Bots work:

The customer sends a message to your Facebook page, asking a question (hours, directions, etc.) or making some other inquiry.

The chatbot responds automatically, using pre-programmed scripts and data you’ve uploaded. Maybe it recommends a product or it may just provide basic details about your business, hours and location — it all depends on how you’ve programmed it.

The conversation continues until the customer’s needs are met. It might even be able to book an appointment for the customer, help them make a purchase or schedule a time for a follow-up call or consultation.

Once all is said and done, business owners can use their chats to identify leads and re-engage customers with other marketing strategies.

The Many Benefits of Bots

Bots come with serious benefits for brands that use them properly.

Not only can they offer a way to quickly and easily connect with customers on the go, from anywhere and at any time, but they also reduce your customer service costs and improve your overall reputation.

Add in their advertising and remarketing capabilities, and that means solid lead generation and even sales are an option, too.

How to Master Facebook Messenger Bot

There’s no single way to build your Facebook Messenger Bot. You can program it from scratch, using resources from the Facebook Messenger for Developers community, or you can use a bot building platform, which help you create your bot in a simple, step-by-step way.

Here are some options for building your bot:

Chatfuel – This is one of the largest Facebook Messenger Bot platforms, and it’s what big brands like Netflix and TechCrunch use to build and manage their bots. There are even pro accounts with extra features and add-ons.

Conversable – Designed for big, Fortune 500 corporations, Conversable is an enterprise-class platform for bot building. It can even help you manage your conversations across other channels, like on voice-enabled devices and OnStar.

Instabot – This platform bills itself as a “conversion chatbot” designed to work with your CRM and lead nurturing systems. It comes with some pretty deep-dive demographics that can help improve your campaigns.

ManyChat – ManyChat is designed just for Facebook Messenger and even has a free version if you don’t need a lot of support. The tool uses a drag-and-drop builder to make bot creation super easy and simple (it claims it takes just 2 minutes to complete!)

SnatchBot – This tool is designed for multi-channel bots and works with Facebook Messenger, Slack, Skype, Twilio and various web and mobile apps. SnatchBots can collect payment, send receipts, translate different languages and more.

There are other options, too, including Botfuel, Botsociety, and ItsAlive. Most offer different levels of pricing depending on how much customization, support and measurement you’re looking for.

Facebook Messenger Ads

Facebook Messenger ads offer a quick and affordable way to promote your chatbot and bring past customers (or just past leads) back into the fold. You can also work ads into your chatbot conversations, displaying product carousels and other targeted content to the user.

The other option is to use your Facebook ads to send users to your messenger bot with a “Send Message” call-to-action.

If you’ve honed in on a solid chatbot strategy, this can be a great way to impress new leads and potential customers. Just make sure you choose “Messages” as your campaign objective during set-up.

Now that you know the types of Facebook Messenger ads that are out there, how do you use them? Which situations are the best for and when should you cough up the extra cash to try them out?

Though these ads are pretty new, there are a few goals we can see Messenger Ads being really helpful with.

Here are a few:

1. Retargeting – Use Messenger ads to get back in touch with people who have brushed paths with your brand before. Encourage them to ask you questions, learn more about your company or address any hang-ups or concerns they had when initially encountering you. It may be just the extra push someone needs to become a customer.

2. Raise awareness – This won’t work with Sponsored Messages (because of the targeting limitations), but basic Messenger ads can certainly help expose your brand to new potential customers in your target demo. Just make sure to create an ad that prompts conversation or sparks a question.

3. Creating special offers – Messenger ads are a great way to deliver special offers and discount codes directly to those who stand to benefit most. This can also help in retargeting efforts.

4. Personalized quotes – Have a service that you can’t accurately priced without more info? Use messenger ads to get users to contact you, provide more info and get a customized quote in return.

5. Building a bigger messenger audience – Go broad with your Messenger ad targeting, and inspire more users to get in touch. Once you’ve built up a big enough arsenal of users, you can use that audience to reach more with your Sponsored Messages.

About the AuthorTara graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a B.S. in Journalism / Business. Her passion for creative publishing and quality reporting landed her work opportunities at several companies in Massachusetts, New York and California. She is a leading voice behind CPC Strategy’s Blog. See all posts by this author here.

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